Re: [Madwifi-users] [PATCH 2/5] madwifi: Fix format strings warnings for x86_64.

[Pavel R. <pr...@gn...>]

Hello!

On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 16:21 -0300, Beat Meier wrote:

> The problem was not the kernel version it was the gcc version.

I don't see how you can make that conclusion.  If you see the diff for
lib/vsprintf.c in patch-2.4.22, you'll see that 'z' support was added
there.  Judging by the comments, it was 'z' initially, then it was
renamed to 'Z', and finally 'z' was reinstated in Linux 2.4.22.

I didn't test 'z' with an older kernel, but I'm quite sure that my
understanding of the code is correct.

> The following code fragment which was changed in the past doesn't
> compile
> with gcc-2.95.4 (debian 3.0) but compiles with gcc-3.3.5 (debian 3.1).
> I tried kernel 2.4.25 and kernel 2.4.30. 
> 
>         KASSERT(ie[1]+2 <= (int)sizeof(struct ieee80211_ie_wpa),
>                 ("WPA IE too big, %u > %zu",
>                 ie[1]+2, sizeof(struct ieee80211_ie_wpa)));
> 
> ieee80211_output.c: In function `ieee80211_setup_wpa_ie':
> ieee80211_output.c:738: warning: unknown conversion type character `z'
> in format
> ieee80211_output.c:738: warning: too many arguments for format

If the code doesn't compile, then there are errors, and you only quoted
warnings.  I wouldn't care about such warnings at all.  I believe gcc
would compile working code even it it doesn't know about some format
modifiers.

> BTW: Is this modifier gcc specific or has ANSI C changed the specs
> because older spec
> does not have this modifier ...
> 
> I think If wa can ommit this specifier we should because of
> compatibility issues ...

Slightly on a different topic ...

Backward compatibility is often overrated.  When I dropped support for
2.4 kernels between two release candidates of the Orinoco driver, not a
single person complained.  Yet I'm constantly getting requests to add
support for Agere firmware download.  Users often want to upgrade
whatever it takes to get support for their hardware.

I don't know, maybe madwifi is catering to a more conservative audience,
but it's strange, considering that it serves newer hardware.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin